Important things to know about the Planet-surf.com virus

Planet-surf.com virus is a very low-functionality search engine, which is initially promoted as a reliable tool enhancing the user’s browsing quality. This virus is specifically designed for the users from the French-speaking countries. So, Africa, Europe and Canada are the main continents in which this virus’s activity is most significant. In fact, the security experts deem this supposed search engine as a browser hijacker and do not recommend keeping it installed on your computer. If you want to find out more about how this program can affect your system and how you can avoid it getting on your computer, please keep reading the article. However, if you want to go straight to the Planet-surf.com removal, skip to the end of this article to find some removal tips, which, hopefully, you help you to get rid of this potential computer threat.

Questions about Planet-surf.com

Planet-surf.com hijack is easy to spot. Once this virus enters the computer, it overtakes the browser settings and alters them by assigning The Planet-surf.com as a homepage and default search engine. Also, this website loads in a new URL tab every time the user opens the browser. Apart from the altered browser settings, this virus may additionally install Planet Surf Toolbar. This so-called “helper object” allows the virus processes to run smoothly and obstructs the user from changing the altered settings back to the original ones. Also, if this toolbar is not uninstalled along with the virus, it can help Planet Surf to bounce back to your browser and continue to redirect you to its suspicious website. The website is considered suspicious for a reason. The users, who found themselves with this search engine on their computers, and tried to search some information through it, report various problems. The results displayed by this engine are usually irrelevant and full of links and ads of this hijacker’s affiliate websites. The virus may track the non-personal information about your browsing habits and use it to create more personalized ads, in this way increasing the chance of them being clicked more often. It has been observed that usually, clicking on the ads generated by Planet-surf.com redirect the users to unreliable and possibly infectious websites, which contain some very questionable content. Therefore, you should stay away from this virus and remove Planet-surf.com from your computer ASAP. We recommend using Reimage for the most efficient virus elimination.

How this hijacker can take over my browser?

Browser hijackers are usually spread through a deceptive marketing method called “bundling”. This strategy allows less popular but legitimate, as well as potentially unwanted programs to reach the users computers through software packages. PUP creators favour such packages because the malicious programs can be attached to some popular and frequently downloaded applications, and, in this way increase the download rate and expansion of the virus. Also, the “Quick” or “Recommended” installation settings allow these programs to sneak into the users’ computers undetected. However, if you are a more security-conscious computer user, you might be using the “Advanced” or “Custom” installation modes, which allow monitoring all the optional installs, potentially added to your downloaded freeware or shareware programs. Make sure you always opt for the advanced installation settings when installing newly downloaded programs, and you will decrease the risk of getting your computer hijacked by different malware, Trojans, and other viruses.

How can I remove Planet-surf.com virus from my PC?

Removing Planet-surf.com virus from your system can be rather easy if you have the knowledge and proper tools to do it. For the most efficient virus removal, the security experts recommend using some reputable antivirus utility. The automatic removal method is advised because this virus can install additional content to your computer as was mentioned before. For this reason, manually tracking down all of the virus-related components hidden deep in your computer’s system can be complicated. However, if you are determined to remove Planet-surf.com manually, you can follow our detailed virus removal guide provided bellow.

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What to do if failed?
If you failed to remove infection using Reimage, submit a question to our support team and provide as much details as possible.

Reimage is recommended to uninstall Planet-surf.com. Free scanner allows you to check whether your PC is infected or not. If you need to remove malware, you have to purchase the licensed version of Reimage malware removal tool. More information about this program can be found in Reimage review.

Remove Planet-surf.com from Windows systems

Reimage is a tool to detect malware.You need to purchase Full version to remove infections.

Click Start → Control Panel → Programs and Features (if you are Windows XP user, click on Add/Remove Programs).

If you are Windows 10 / Windows 8 user, then right-click in the lower left corner of the screen. Once Quick Access Menu shows up, select Control Panel and Uninstall a Program.

Uninstall Planet-surf.com and related programs
Here, look for Planet-surf.com or any other recently installed suspicious programs.

Uninstall them and click OK to save these changes.

Remove Planet-surf.com from Windows shortcuts
Right click on the shortcut of Mozilla Firefox and select Properties.

Go to Shortcut tab and look at the Target field. Delete malicious URL that is related to your virus.

Repeat steps that are given above with all browsers' shortcuts, including Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. Make sure you check all locations of these shortcuts, including Desktop, Start Menu and taskbar.

Remove Planet-surf.com from Safari

Reimage is a tool to detect malware.You need to purchase Full version to remove infections.

Remove dangerous extensions
Open Safari web browser and click on Safari in menu at the top left of the screen. Once you do this, select Preferences.

Here, select Extensions and look for Planet-surf.com or other suspicious entries. Click on the Uninstall button to get rid each of them.

Change your homepage if it was altered by virus:
Open your Safari web browser and click on Safari in menu section. Here, select Preferences as it was displayed previously and select General.

Here, look at the Homepage field. If it was altered by Planet-surf.com, remove unwanted link and enter the one that you want to use for your searches. Remember to include the "http://" before typing in the address of the page.

Reset Safari
Open Safari browser and click on Safari in menu section at the top left of the screen. Here, select Reset Safari....

Now you will see a detailed dialog window filled with reset options. All of those options are usually checked, but you can specify which of them you want to reset. Click the Reset button to complete Planet-surf.com removal process.